Celtic hear about this whole “Northern Ireland” thing and Shaun Maloney?

By: Matt | July 2nd, 2008

Apparently the members of the Celtic board were informed that there were some minor tensions in the past in Northern Ireland. Seeing that more often than not the different sides of this little spat have very polarizing feelings on Celtic, the team decided not to go ahead with the friendly scheduled with East Belfast team Glentoran FC. Instead of a friendly with Glens, a Celtic XI will now be taking on, in much more Celtic friendly West Belfast, Donegal Celtic on July 23rd. Besides being a namesake, Donegal Celtic has been facing financial trouble and a high profile friendly like this might be able to help some of these woes. Without even getting into the politics of it, it seems like this is a much better friendly to help a club facing difficult times. As far as I know (and if anyone is aware, please correct me), Glens is not facing the financial trouble and it seems like a charitable thing to try and help out a struggling club. The day out against Glens at the Oval would probably had some good craic, but it seems more like the “Celtic” way to help Donegal Celtic.
In the wacky world of transfers, old Bhoy Shaun Maloney was reported to be having a wee sleep over at Celtic Park. The rumor was that Maloney was at Celtic Park to discuss a five year deal for “substantially” more than he was offered before he packed up and left to go down south. With Gordon Strachan oozing over the 4-5-1 formation that can become a 4-3-3 when the ball is possed during his time as a commentator for the Euros, one must wonder if Maloney is a piece that Ginger Baws is looking to put forth this plan. Sources inside Celtic Park have said that Strachan believes that a Roman Pavlyuchenko would be a perfect top man for this formation, but a Maloney could morph into one of those midfielder/striker types on the attack. Many Celtic fans have called Maloney less than flattering things such as “a greedy twat” and “a moneygrabber” and I can’t say I disagree. It finally seems that at the end of the year, Strachan found a formula that worked yet he is already wanting to change it up it seems. Hopefully this all just pish…